In your climate, you should probably be running double deeps for brood. Davis is the academic heart of agriculture for California, so have you asked any local advice? I only see two boxes on your hive, and if the upper one is a super, you need to fill a second brood box first.
Please donât use a queen âextractorâ⌠A queen excluder is much kinder! Joking aside, whenever you put the Flow super on, you really should use a queen excluder. Even strong proponents of not using queen excluders (like Frederick Dunn) agree that you should use one with Flow frames.
Looks like minor bearding. I guess it was hot today? Like high 70s or 80s? Second brood box will help a bit with that in the first year too.
That is a hoary old chestnut (= often answered question) here, and you can check this thread for a ton of ideas:
By the way, your external feeder worries me for 2 reasons:
- You shouldnât be feeding when you have a super on the hive
- External feeders encourage robbing. I would find an internal feeder of some sort. You can use the Forum search tool to look for in hive feeders